who got u into hounding?

[digger dogger]

for the guy's with hounds..when i was three, my dad hunted in o.n for coons. i don't remember much of my dad's buddies dog's but i do remember getting attacked by a goose on his farm.. i've seen a few old pics but not for yrs. they used blue ticks..
when i started hounding, i bought started dogs, after a few wrecks (15-20) it slowly started to happen. i've learned a whole new meaning to patience. (most days). i wanted to hunt cougar, but found nobody wants to take a guy out. hiring a guide was not an option 4-7 grand, ouch. so i bought started dogs, the feeling i got when i seen my 1st animal up a tree(bear) was unreal. the feeling i got when i treed my 1st cougar was overwhelming. it was me and my dogs at the tree, my girlfriend stayed at the truck! i was hooked, i'd like to think i can pass my dogs off to my son's by the time i'm 50, (my knee's hurt bad some days)so i figure one if not both son's could keep it going..
so i think my want to hunt comes from my uncle, my want to hound comes from my dad..

[SHAKER]

Learned from a local guy who show'd me the ropes a bit. Met a bunch of other guys who formed a conservation based hound club and the rest is history. 100% die hard, life altered hound hunter. Was never about kill'n critters for me and I still admit my Cougar was the most anti-climatic hunt I've ever done... wanted to tag one for sooo long and them it was over... to this day I still don't care if I kill another one. But runn'n hounds and hearing that sweet mountain music will put a smile on the most tired of faces.

[gibblewabble]

My grandfather had 2 hounds that we used for snowshoe hare, man it was fun I am tossing the idea around to get one when my old girl passes on, the kids dog is a wash, he buggers off as soon as he sees a gun now doesn't like shooting.

[Barracuda]

Always loved dogs and hunting with dogs in all its forms from birding to terriors and vermin with everything in between.

The wife loves watching any dog work as it was intended and she is like kid on christmas when she watches the hounds.


I will admit we are a bit odd and for us it is all about the dog and we cant wait to start pigging .

[TyTy]

Are your dogs family pets as well? Good with children sorta thing??

[Clint_S]

Always LOVED dogs and just wanted to find a way to enjoy them more.
I was living in Nanaimo at the time I got my first hunting dog and I used to drive by a place out by Extension where there were some hounds chained in a yard by a dumpy old trailer. One day I stopped and started talking dogs. The fellows name was Tom Bender I believe and he drove the beatest Toyota pickup you've ever seen and every year it would get a new paint job by paintbrush
He gave me a stack of FULL CRY magazines and taught me a few things about training a young dog and we proceeded to give the coon population hell. (That area is about the worst I can imagine for anyone who likes to hunt as every road is gated off.) Anyway that was about 25 yrs ago. I still have a few more in me but the joints are getting pretty achy but like Digger maybe my boy will continue.

[Spokerider]

Yep.......always had a love for dogs and how intuative they can become to their masters domain / pack.

No one else in my family hunts.....thus the desire to keep breaking new ground and step it up a notch, [ owning hounds ] lol.

Always had a hankering for anything outdoors......hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, exploring etc, and my mutts participate in all of these activities.

The "hunt" in hunting is the deal for me. Never did enjoy the killing part of hunting and is always a tough pill for me to swallow. Hunting with hounds is the epitome of pursuit, and I can choose if and when I wish to kill game, and still get the adrenalin rush in "hunting".

Want a challenge? Well hounds are it........they propose all kinds of challenges, including trying to curtail them from barking at mrs Jones as she walks her little yappy "hound" past the driveway, lol. Lots of challenges....it's all part of it.

Being able to hunt my mutts via a method that works for my desires..... rigging, roading, freecasting, walking out tracks all have their merits. I hunt for pleasure, not because I'm guiding somebody.......and so can afford to be *choosy* about letting the hounds go when the risks for injury / loss are too great.

Sometimes, you never figure out just what the buggers are chasing for sure, or know just which mountian side you will end up on the end of the day, but that's all part of the "adventure" of hunting with hounds.

[.300WSMImpact!]

can you hunt like this with one dog, or do you need multiple

[Bear Chaser]

I got interested in hound hunting when I was 18. There were a couple local guys who had been using hounds for a few years and had some good dogs. I kept running into one of them during deer season & before long was invited to try bear hunting the next spring. After the first successful hunt I was hooked. By success I mean bears in a tree, dogs going crazy, & a large sow with three cubs being left to go about her business after picture taking. Up here we were mainly focused on bears as there was no cougar season back then. For several years spending time with my friend & the dogs was all I really wanted to do. Shooting bears on the ground in a bayup, sliding down hillsides, thorns in my hands, getting home soaked to the bone at two in the morning after looking for dogs were all accepted as things that could happen on any hunt. I loved it.

Unfortunately as time goes on it was harder for my friend to continue this type of hunting. He was thirteen years older than me & had all the demands that go with a young family and a busy oilpatch job. When he let his dogs go I was't quite ready to take them as I could not afford the time or the financial commitment.
So here I am fourteen years after my last bear race missing it and hoping one day for a chance to hear hounds again. Perhaps down the road I may be able to join a spring hunt or two with some other houndsmen for bear.

By the way most of my friend's dogs were blueticks with a few walkers and one or two plotts that came & went.

If you have the right dogs most bears can be caught with only two dogs although usually there is a mix of old & young dogs as houndsmen continually should be training to replace dogs lost due to old age, bears, and vehicles.

Happy hunting everybody.

[abolt]

i was lucky enough to have somebody local take me out back in the 70's.
i'd love to do it again, but i dont think the body would be able to anymore.
he run mostly plott's, but some of the guy's ran tick's and walkers. i only
had one and he was a black and tan, blue tick cross. the sweet sound of those hounds baying will be with me for life, it's something you will never forget.